Canadian retailers have spent the past week lining up plans to offer special savings and extended hours on Black Friday — the traditional day of shopping that comes after all the American football has been watched and American turkey has been eaten.

North of the border, though, pretty much everyone will be preoccupied per usual with working for the weekend.

This year, the Black Friday blitz will begin at 8 p.m. the night before at Walmart, while other chains will open as early as 4 a.m. on Friday, a cornucopia of consumerism that many Canadians will watch from afar with morbid fascination.

Perhaps in recognition of the fact that Black Friday has relatively little meaning on the calendar here, at least two stores have announced that their related sales will be starting even sooner: The Bay has promoted a One Day Sale today as being as good as anything that would come along next week, while Toys “R” Us in Canada will stay open until midnight this Friday.

Certainly, the high Canadian dollar, increased duty-free limits for cross-border shoppers, the growing popularity of online shopping and awareness that taxes and tariffs are lower in the U.S. have all combined to challenge Canadian retailers to get more creative.

But will those that open at 7 a.m. or earlier next Friday reap any rewards? At least the media can be counted on to show up.